International Astronomy Day - Call for Participants

Yes Tammy Plotner in Ohio is going to give whatever donations she gets to UNICEF Ireland. That's what she wants to do.

Deirdre Kelleghan

Friday April 20th 2007

Well it looked really cloudy as I drove into Dublin for our Public Star Party on Friday evening. I was thinking this was the third double public star party this year that has been done in by the Irish weather. We had advertised it around the place and we had also committed to do it for UNICEF Ireland, so we were going to do this regardless of the clouds or anything else the sky could do on us.

Sandymount is a busy enough place were people take strolls along the seafront most evenings. It’s convenient for us as the car park butts up against a grassy area just beside the walkway.

Six of us arrived to bring astronomy to the people, the aim of Astronomy Day 2007. John Murphy, Myself, Patricia Carroll, and Val Dunne set up our scopes and hoped for a clearing in the clouds. John’s daughter Sarah came along to help collect a few bob for UNICEF and to give out information. Robin Moore arrived to help talk the talk and guide people to which of our scopes were showing Venus, Saturn or the Moon.


I wrote up an information sheet about who we are, and what we do, and also included a little about the Moon, Venus and Saturn to share it with the public. UNICEF Ireland provided Global Child leaflets for distribution also.

We had a steady flow of people all evening from 8:30pm till 10:30 pm.
People are fascinated with telescopes and people love to talk and they also love to listen. So we talked Moon, Venus, Saturn and astronomy to everyone who stopped by.

From 9:15 pm on we were so lucky as the sky cleared toward the west and the beautiful crescent Moon, Venus and Saturn came out to play with us.

People were so delighted, to see such things when they were just out for a walk. Some members of the public came along as they saw the event on UNICEF’s website, some saw it in the Irish Times. We gave away 110 information sheets and Global Parent leaflets. Approximately 70 people stopped for either a chat or a look depending on whether they arrived when there was something to see. I guess we would have had a bigger crowd if it was a better evening, but it was once again a wonderful experience in public outreach.

The public gave generously for UNICEF and we gave back by sharing astronomy with them.

More pics and Saturday story tomorrow

Deirdre Kelleghan
Irish Astronomical Society
www.irishastrosoc.org


Venus was so low with Patricia


The Moon for dad and baby



Saturn talk with John


Robin taks Moon


Val tells Moon tales


Friday's Team UNICEF photo taken by team member Sarah Murphy


Well done John

Many congratulations to you all.

Two worthy causes, UNICEF, and letting the people see what they would never normally get a chance to look at.

Well done.

Paul

Nice work IAS Team Unicef!

Well done, looks like a great night

unfortunately we were clouded out. We even managed to get on the six o clock news on Radio Kerry, letting people know what they would have seen if it cleared up.

The irony of it is, We have been sending in press releases to them for a few years about public observing sessions, and the one time they give us good coverage the county is covered in cloud :evil:

Thank you Seanie and Paul for your comments


Thanks Trevor and Kerry for trying, perhaps you are on a roll now with that radio station since you caught their attention.

A BIG THANKS also to Bernadette Foley who organised the DEISE Astronomy Society event for UNICEF. 100% cloud put a stop to their gallop but Eugene Burke used their Garda permit and collected over €200 for UNICEF in Abbeyside after mass. That's what I call a result

Deirdre Kelleghan